Doom's Salvation
by Icksha
Summary: You have read about Lief's and Barda's adventure. and how they met Doom, but this story tells you more about Doom himself, who is he, where is from, what dark deeds he has done. even more about Jasmin's mother.
1. Doom with a Heart

It would seem I forgot to put in my disclaimer. Sorry for the delay, I do plan on getting more up. Anyways, I am not the original author of "Deltora", Emily Rodda is. Not all the names and places are not of my own creation. Yadda yadda yadda. I will say that while not all of it is mine, some of it is.

Doom with a Heart

As my blade glides through the flesh of my opponent, I finally see through the haze of the dream. Her body hits the floor on top of hundreds of other, this was no fight, this was a slaughter. Hundred of defenseless women and children. How long have I've been doing this?

The guards chain me and take my weapons, shoving me into a cell. Dark, small and damp. "Good show tonight Doombringer. You might get food tonight." Chuckles the guard as he slams the door shut.

Faintly I hear sobbing, and I know the reason: They are next to go into the arena, to the doom. _How much time has past? How many have I killed?_ These thoughts fly through my head as I gently fall into unconsciousness.

"DOOM!!! DOOM!!! WAKE UP!!!" The guard screams and howlers orders, slowly I understand his words. "TIME FOR YOUR NEXT FIGHT!! GER YOUR ARMOR AND WEAPONS!!"

Still in a daze, I slide my armor on and slowly start to gather my weapons: My sword, ax, bow, dagger, and knife. As I head towards the door, the guard stops me and points back showing that I missed my quiver.

Slowly the gate comes up and I step into the arena, my muscles on edge. Ready to attack, to kill. A lone figure stands in the middle, back to me. He is next to die.

The crowd mutters "Doom verses Fear?" "What?" "But they are the best fighters here?" and quickly memories fly back to me, time when me and the man know as Fearfighter, whose true name is Josef, practiced and trained for hours together. Day after bloody day. Slowly becoming friends, my heart sinks in knowing he will not survive the fight.

"THERE HAS BEEN A SLIGHT CHANGE OF PLANS!!" Booms the King, the magician Soldeen. "INSTEAD OF FIGHTING EACH OTHER, THEY WILL BE FIGHTING THE DAEDLY DRAGON!!" and as the words leave his vile tongue, the crowd explodes with excitement.

Fear looks at me and smiles, his eye saying "Thought myself dead." My thoughts begin to race, _How well do I fight? What if I forget how to kill? _ But have little time to ponder such questions, the final gate lurches open, and a dragon, royal purple in color, storms in. Its wings tied tight to its sides.

"BEGIN!!!" and with that the dragon springs into action. My muscles react and move without waiting for my command. My hands and feet doing exactly as they need to do to keep me alive.

Before I even know what was happening, the dragon fell, dead, to the ground. I see only my bow in my hand and an arrow in the dragon's eye.

"DO YOU WANT MORE BLOOD?!?" The crowd just roars all the louder. "THEN RELEASE THE SLAVES!!!" hundreds, maybe thousands, of men, women, and children enter the arena, all armed. Both Fear and I start to work. My blade making quick work of the slaves. Fear is doing well but fails to see the man throw the knife that hits him the back. Quickly, quietly, he falls.

Rushing to his aid, I kill thirty or more men and start to keep his broken body well defended. Kill all who come near.

Finally, after hours, the slaves quit coming. All that's left is three men, five women, and one small, black haired, blue eyed, blood stained girl, no older than seven. I slowly walk over, the adults try to swarm me, I just rip through them, almost as though they weren't there.

Fear limps quickly to kill the lone girl, but I stop him. I don't know why, but she can't die. Not here. Fear turns to me and continues his attack, raising his ax high. My knife in my hand, I roll and plunge it deep into the newly made hole. Knocking him unconscious from the pain.

The girl runs to me and wraps her arms around my legs, openly weeping. I look at the kind and plead "JUST SPARE HER! LET ME TRAIN ER!"

Laughing, he says "LET HER BE TRAINED WELL, SHE WILL FIGHT AGAIN IN ONE MONTH. AGAINST RIOLU!!!"

I bow and lead the girl towards the gate, as she starts to dry her perfect blue eyes. Taking her to the armory, we get her new cloths and finally choose her a suitable weapon. The kunai.

"You see, Riolu is the best child fighter in the whole arena. Behind me, Caffry (AKA Blazer) and Fear. Some say he might be able to beat me some day." I informed Ruth, for I had learned she had no name and Ruth seemed to fit. "You will be fighting him. Luckily, you don't have to win, just show promise."

She looks at me, eyes full of courage, without fear. "I can do it. For my daddy, he was big and strong. Like you…" almost whispering the last part. "Hey, where is Cassie? Me and her are good friends. But he guards made her go right. She don't walk so good."

"I'm sure she will turn up." Knowing she would be fed to the dragons, as all the "defects" were. "Let's start your training. I must know, can you kill someone?"

Her eyes start to well up, and a single tear rolls down her cheek. "Yes" she coughs out.

"Good. Your there! Slave! Here! NOW!!" I bark almost no better than the guards. "Now Ruth, kill this man. Take your kunai, and kill him."

"NO!!" she screams. "NO!! I CAN'T!!"

"Ruth, you must. If you don't you will never see Cassie again." It was a low blow, and I knew it, but she killed the slave, crying silently. Her first lesson over.

As the slave's body hits the floor, so were her tears. One tear landed on the dead man's face. Suddenly the man gets up, hands Ruth the kunai to her, and walks back to the wall, alive. "You see Ruth." I begin softly. "No one can die here. We are protected by magic." To prove this, I take my sword and lob off the same slave's head, holding to where she can see it full detached and place it back oh the man's shoulders. Where it quickly healed back.

Still crying, Ruth spends the next few hours killing slave after slave. Till she was red from head to toe with their blood.


	2. Heartless Doom

Heartless Doom

After yesterday's blood bath, Ruth seemed pretty sullen. Without saying a word, she did all that was asked of her, she practiced blocking and counter attacking, throwing, even counter blocking. Lucky for her she was a quick study. By the end of the second day, she was ready for live training.

For her third day she will do live combat, unfortunately, I am "needed" in the arena. She will have to train under fear.

"THIS IS A FINE MATCH UP TODAY!" booms Soldeen "CAFFRY VERSES DOOM. TO THE DEATH!!"

As I look around, I notice the stands are void of voice. Empty. "What is the meaning of this?" I demand, "What is the point if no one is to watch?"

"THE POINT IS CAFFRY WANTS TO MOVE UP IN RANK!" explodes the reply as the gate opposite me rises.

"SHAR, BLAKRAK NORGRU!" is the only sound heard as this tall, skinny, string of a man run towards me. Bow drawn and ready. The game is afoot. As the arrow is released from his bow, I dive to the left, drawing and throwing my dagger in one swift, sound, fluid motion. Quickly trying to get close to Blazer. He easily deflects my knife, running to stay out of my reach.

Arrow after lightning fast arrow wiz by my face and body. None landing a hit, every so often one grazing the skin. Finally I see my chance. I grab the newest shot arrow, quickly shooting it back, catching him off guard and in the calf. Before his body even hits the ground, five new arrows sprout from his back. Death will soon follow.

"DOOMBRINGER! YOU LIVE TO FIGHT AGAIN!" and with that, I leave.

"What they want you to kill this time? A horde of dragons or maybe a god?" Asks Fear half-heartedly, as he watches Ruth practice with a boy a few years older than her. New cuts and bruises showing all over her arms. "Don't just stay on offence, draw him in. Make him work to hit you."

Nothing so easy, you've moved up in rank." Comes my reply automatically. "There wasn't even a crowd this time. It was for the Foul King."

"This calls for a celebration. I'm the second best and most likely to be killed next." Mutters Fear "Come now girl, you must move faster. Don't fear the blade, just don't touch it. Best way to not get hurt; move out of its way. Use your size."

"Ruth!" I bark "give me your report."

Ruth, hearing this, drops her kunai and runs to me to give a training report. "Doom, Fear is nowhere near as tough a teacher as you. He doesn…" I quickly pick up her kunai and press it to her throat.

"How many times must I tell you, never go unar…" as the word starts to leave my mouth she wrenches the kunai from my hand and tries to turn it on me. My knife and hands quicker from true battle, stopping her futile effort by slicing her wrist. "You are going to be a battle fox someday, but never forget. I never loose."

Her hand fully healed by the time she picks her kunai up from where it fell. "I'm not giving up, ever." We soon picked back up our training where she left off.

As the new sun rises on the new month. The final day for her training. She is as ready today as she will be if we trained all day. I will let her enjoy her last promised day.

"Doom? Tomorrow is the month, right? The day I have to fight Riolu?" she asks in a not so innocent sort of way. "He is going to try and kill me, and I have to kill him?"

"No, he may be aiming to kill you but neither of you have to die. You only have to prove that you can be a great fighter, prove you can entertain the king and his men." I say for what feels like the hundredth time that day. "But if you can kill him, don't hesitate, it will show your heartlessness, show that you have what it takes to kill millions of innocents."

At this, Fear walks in, gear in hands. It is our training day. Sparring with each other is one of few pleasures we get here in the arena. I quickly get my armor and sharpen my weapons. Today we will be using axes only.

As he runs at me, ax raised and ready, I start to slowly back up, forcing him to keep advancing. He swings again and again, missing with each shot. I step forward half a step and he swings at me, missing by what must be an inch or less. I deflect the shot with ease and grace, our ax heads clashing, sending sparks all over the floor.

We quickly trade blows, neither of us able to land a hit on the others. The heads of our axes acting both as attacking tools and a shield. Slowly we skate around the training area, till we are both tired and dripping with sweat. A few cuts here and there, nothing to serious or life threatening. Blood slowly running down our bodies.

I bide my time, waiting for the best opportunity to strike. Finally I see it. He swings too hard, to far out of his reach. His ax crashing to the ground, I swing and hit him just below the left shoulder, burying it deep into his back.

He roars in pain as his body slumps to the ground. I raise my ax again, to finish him off. Stopping it mid-swing, less than half an inch from his neck. "Yield?" I bark harshly.

"I have been bested, again." He mutters, "I yield" but as I reach down to help him up; he does a ground sweep, knocking me off my feet. As my head hits the ground, I become dazed slightly and when my head clears some I see his ax coming down towards my throat. Reacting faster than I could think, I knock the ax aside, giving me a hair cut. I break his ankles and bury my ax into his skull.

"Cheep trick. Very impressive. Never thought you would do it." I say as I pull my ax back, his head healing quickly now that the fight is over. "I must remember it."

"If I'm to survive in the arena now, cheep tricks are all that will keep me alive." And with that, he walks out leaving me and Ruth to talk till when food might be supplied.


End file.
